One of the Quick Reaction Alert pilots from RAF Lossiemouth, who intercepted the Russian Bears, said: “This was my first time intercepting Russian Long Range Aviation and everything ran on rails.

"Our first intercept occurred to the west of the Shetland Islands, where we shadowed the two Russian Tu-142 Bear-F aircraft as they tracked south.

"The UK has some of the busiest airspace in the world and civilian airliners are constantly using the airways in this area, so our presence ensured UK Air Traffic Controllers could continue to manage this busy airspace around the hazard of the Russian activity.

"Subsequently the two Russian Bears continued to track south towards the Bay of Biscay where they were met by French Quick Reaction Alert. We intercepted the Bears as they turned back North before we handed them off to additional QRA Typhoons again launched from RAF Lossiemouth.”

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The total number of Russian aircraft involved in the incident has not been revealed.

"This was a routine response to Russian aircraft approaching UK air space and was coordinated with several other Nato allies," and RAF spokesman said.

In April last year, Typhoons from RAF Lossiemouth were scrambled twice in five days to prevent Russian military planes entering UK airspace. During the same period, jets from RAF Coningsby were also deployed to a separate incident involving Russian aircraft.

Last summer, RAF fighter jets were deployed several times to see off Russian planes encroaching on Estonian airspace.

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